Les Misérables

On Friday, December 28, 2012, I went to see the movie Les Misérables.

I know, this is not a movie, but a movie adaptation of the stage production.  But it is nonetheless, a movie now on screen.

The story follows a convict named Jean Valjean, who is allowed parole after nineteen years.  He disappears and is given a new life after a bishop "gifts" him silverware.  Valjean uses this silver to become the mayor of a town and open up a factory, where he hires workers.  However, as a fight breaks out betwee two workers, he asks his foreman to sort this out and ends up sending Fantine into the streets, since she is an unwed mother.

I will not continue the story, because that is part of the movie experience.  I have to say, however, that this was very well done.  I have not seen the musical on stage, but I have listened to the musical on a recording.  The order of the pieces are relatively in place.  There was a small change in the order of the songs for the movie...  I won't go into it here because I don't want to give it away, but I find that this change actually made the storyline and the piece in question stronger.

The actors:

Hugh Jackman played Jean Valjean
Russell Crowe played Javert
Anne Hathaway played Fantine
Amanda Seyfried played Cosette
Eddie Redmayne played Marius
Samantha Barks played Eponine (who also played this character for the 25th anniversary concert)

And many more...  Including Colm Wilkinson...  Who played Jean Valjean in the original Broadway cast.

Go and see it, it is truly an amazing work...  The first musical where the actors sang live and didn't lip sync.

Silver Linings Playbook

On Tuesday, December 18, 2012, I went to see the movie Silver Linings Playbook.  This movie features, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Tucker and Anupham Khur.

The movie is about Pat, played by Cooper, who was released from a mental institution where he stayed for eight months.  We learn that there was an incident that caused him to beat someone near death and we also learned that he was diagnosed with bipolar personality disorder.

So, Pat gets picked up by his mom, who brings him home.  We see that Pat is trying to get better and cope with his disorder without the use of medication.  He has difficulty sometimes, for sure, because certain things give him bad memories, or he has difficulty dealing with his bipolarism, but we see that things get better.

The major plot of the story is that he meets a mysterious girl named Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence.  Tiffany is a widow of a cop.  Tiffany meets Pat at a dinner party.  Things develop, they start talking to each other and hanging out or going out on dates, and Tiffany asks Pat to be his dance partner for this couples dancing competition that she has always wanted to go to, but has never had a chance to go, since Tommy (her former husband) would never go.

There are also plot twists, storyline with Pat's immediately family as well...  Mostly with his father, played by Robert De Niro.

I really enjoyed this movie and I actually might be interested in reading the book, unlike last week...

The Life of Pi

On Tuesday, December 11, 2012, I went to see the movie The Life of Pi, directed by Ang Lee and featuring Irrfan Khan and Gerard Dépardieu.

The story is about a person who was named after a swimming pool in French, thus his name was Piscine.  He was being harassed at school by bullies that would call him pissing, since his teachers could not pronounce his name properly.  So, he shortened his name to Pi.

The story is about his life, how he got his name, how his family had a zoo in India, how they were supposed to immigrate to Canada and settle in Winnipeg, his love, and then how he lost his family when he was shipwrecked.

I won't go into the details of the movie, as it is very similar to the book.  The movie was well done.  The visuals were great, I liked the scenes with the animals and the direction was stunning.  However, the story I didn't like.  I was good until the whole island part.  (Yes, there's this magical island that appears out of nowhere and the island looks creepy)

A visually stunning movie, but the story is weak.  I am actually not interesting in reading Life of Pi.

Characters I relate to in musicals, Part 2

On Saturday, December 8, 2012, I went to an SAQ to buy some wine for a dinner and I bumped into someone whom I met about five or six years ago at Jeunesse Lambda.  We kind of fell out of touch because he was then involved with them and I wasn't...  But, it was nice to see him again...

And I am also happy to announce that he is married to his husband and they live in the eastern part of the city...  That's great.  However, it makes me feel more like the characters I talked about in my post with the same name...

A common element between the characters I talked about is that they are not lucky in love and other people around them end up getting married.  In the case of Fantine, she dies, but her daughter gets married.  In the case of Donna, she does get married at the end of the musical, but I somehow don't feel that this is going to apply to me.  I think her solo ranting parts apply to me more than her duo I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do parts...  Just a thought.

Midnight's Children

On Tuesday, December 4, 2012, I went to see the movie Midnight's Children.  This movie is based upon the book of the same name, by Salman Rushdie.  The movie was directed by Deepa Metha.

This movie is about two babies, who were both born very close to the stroke of midnight at India's Independence.  A nurse switches the two babies and condemns the rich baby to a poor man's life and gives the poor baby a rich man's life.

It also treats the topics of India's Independence, civil wars over regions, etc. etc. I haven't read the book, so I cannot comment on how authentic it is, but I did really think that the movie was very well done.

This two and a half hour movie is not a light movie.  It is a movie that is dramatic and requires you to think.  I thought that Deepa Metha did a good job with this movie.

Characters that I relate to in musicals...

With the Oscar season coming up and certain movies that are combating for awards, there are many good movies that are going to be released between now and Christmas...  One of these movies is Les Misérables, where they have taken the stage musical and made it for the big screen.

There have been several movies done with the same title already, but it has always been the story inspired by Victor Hugo's work, it has never been about the musical...  Until now.

So, this got me thinking...  I was thinking about certain characters from musicals and how I relate to them...  Here are two that I relate to, of course our experiences differ slightly, but I can imagine how they would be feeling:

1) Donna Sheridan, from Mamma Mia!.

Donna runs a villa on the island and also has a daughter to feed, as well as prepare a wedding for.  She works hard to make ends meet and makes sure that she doesn't get into the red, does repairs around the hotel to make sure that it's kept up and also because she wouldn't have to call a repairman...  She had a romances when she was young and has not had any romances since then.

I totally know how she feels.  I have a friend who's getting an iPad 4th generation 64 GB for his/her birthday and another friend who's been on more dates in one week than I have been in on the past three years.

The song that I most relate to:  Money, Money, Money.

(Cue song):

I need a break, I need a holiday, someone's getting an iPad 4th generation 64GB for their birthday and this one here's had more dates in one week than I have had in three years!

I work all night, I work all day to pay the bills I have to pay...

(And the rest of the song applies relatively well to my situation)

Who wouldn't want a wealthy man (or woman) to be pampered once in a while, right?

2) Fantine, from Les Misérables.

Fantine has a summer romance and is left pregnant.  Then the boy just clicks up his heels and leaves her to fend for their daughter...  Making her an unwed mother, which is severely frowned upon in Victor Hugo's time...

She has to hide her daughter with innkeepers in the country where she sends them money to care for her daughter.  Of course, these two are greedy bastards, so they take Fantine for practically every penny she gets.  They make up stories about how her daughter is sick and needs doctors and medicines when in reality they treat her daughter like shit because she is not one of their own.

There is an argument in the factory where Fantine is working and then she is fired from her job.  Fantine has to sell stuff in order to make ends meet, and eventually has to turn to prostitution.

There's a part in the trailer for the Les Misérables movie where I totally feel Fantine's pain:  (At 0:33 to 0:51)

This is my fifth year in teaching and I have been at four different schools.  Every year, it's a new challenge because I start off at a new school again and I have to re-establish rapport with the students.  I always try my best and then at the end of the school year, there is nothing for me, because people with more seniority or what not have to be placed first and I never get absorbed into a school.

(Cue part from the trailer):

"Out my boy, on your way..."

"Help me please, I have a student loan!!!"

I have a dream my life would be...  So different from this hell I'm living, so different now than what it seems?

So yes, I totally feel her pain in the song.  Although, I haven't had to resort to selling my hair, my front teeth, or becoming a prostitute.  I just have to continually hound schools in hopes that they have an opening and then I hope they hire me...  Or spend an entire year as a substitute teacher.  Of course, I dream of having a tad more stability...  Getting onto the priority/recall list (tenure would be nice, but let's take baby steps) and being a regular at a school where I can say I am a teacher at "such and such a school" because I have taught there for x number of years.

True, I have no daughter that I have to care for and support and I do not have to swallow my pride and make money that way, but it is just relatively frustrating when this is the outcome every year.

Oh well, Keep Calm and Carry on, as they say.